A/N: Hello everyone who reads my work! I noticed I haden't posted in a while. Been quite busy! But today is barricade day. HAPPY BARRICADE DAY! So I had to post.
Actually, my main reason for posting is that I was supposed to re-enact the barricade scene on twitter. And I was waiting for like, three hours. And nothing happened. And it was midnight already. So I wrote this. And...yeah.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for more people reviewing! I really appreciate it, even if it's just a few sentences!
I tried to make this longer, to make up for the excuse of a third chapter there! I'm not sure if it is, though. 7 pages on a word processer with double paragraph spacing or whatever the hell I need to do makes it A LOT longer then what is on here. But whatever. I hope you like it!
And to answer your question: I am READING the book. I'm halfway through LesMis. Its so long! But soooo much better than the musical, and thats saying a lot cuz the musical rocks! And I'm 13. SO. Yeah. Read! And review! And happy barricade day, again!
Enjolras sat down, wiped his brow, and admired his handy-work. He had taken pieces of wood from the benches, attached them together to make a sort of grid, and placed the half-barrels in the squares of the grid. Eight half-barrels fit, in rows of four. Enjolras had wound up building it by himself, after Marius fell asleep in a barrel trying to intertwine something with rope (which was found onboard.) Enjolras hoped he would wake up soon to take charge, for he had been up all night building and needed some sleep. He was nodding off against the side of the boat when a shouting snapped him back to earth.
"Look, look!" shouted Gavroche. "I've found some dogs! They were in the storage room under the seats with some other bags!" Gavroche bounded over to Enjolras, followed by two large dogs.
"Can we bring them? Huh? Pleeeeease?" Enjolras watched as one of the dogs ran over to Marius and licked his face, waking him up with a jump.
"Gavroche," Enjolras sighed, "They're too big. They'll sink us. Besides, we have no need for them on the land." Gavroche looked crushed and tore off, just as Eponine and Azelma walked back with arms full of food. Marius was standing up and trying to gather his senses.
"This," said Eponine, "should last us for a while." She and her sister dumped their food into two separate buckets at the front, filling them to almost the top.
"We'll come back with the spare clothes." she said, grabbing Azelma's hand and running upstairs. At this time, Gavroche came back over to beg some more. Enjolras, who just wanted to sleep, eyed Gavroche with a grin.
"I'll train them and everything!"
"No. My answer will always be the same, Gavroche." Gavroche moaned and stalked off, and Eponine and Azelma started down the stairs. "Marius, you take charge. My head is killing me, I need to get some rest, I've been up all night unlike you." Marius blushed but looked rather proud to be assigned temporary leader.
"Alright, Enjolras. You get some rest! I'll see to it everything is okay down here!" Enjolras passed the ladies on the stairs, smiling at them as they hurried downstairs with armfuls of clothes. He reached the upstairs cabin and sat down in a chair, much relieved. He closed his eyes, and heard a noise at the door. It sounded like a person and two things with nails.
"No, Gavroche," he said, opening an eye to check. Sure enough, he saw the child walk away angrily. His dogs looked at Enjolras for a moment before following him downstairs again.
When he woke up, it was still morning. Enjolras concluded he had slept 4 hours. Good enough. He stood up, stretched quickly, and made his way downstairs. The first person he saw was Gavroche. Gavroche was trying to feed his dogs something, but as soon as he saw Enjolras, he stopped and sat in the corner, facing the wall. Enjolras was not quite sure what to think of this. He turned off the steps to the right and saw Marius and the two women making final preparations to their raft. Of the eight half barrels, the two in the front were filled with food, the next two had clothes, the next two were for rowing, and the last two were for whoever wanted to sit there. Eponine declared she would sit in one of the clothes barrels, and Enjolras and Marius would row.
"Nice job, Marius!" exclaimed Enjolras. He had to admit, for Marius, he had done a surprisingly good job supervising. Marius smiled proudly, turning to help the women on the raft.
"Gavroche..." said Enjolras, wanting to be gentle, "time to go! And leave the-" At this point, Gavroche had left his dogs and barreled past Enjolras, head down. He jumped in his half-barrel in a huff, arms crossed. Enjolras raised an eyebrow at Marius, who was staring at him strangely.
"What?" Marius said nothing and turned his eyes back down.
"Alright everyone," said Marius, as Enjolras walked back over to join him. "We need to get this in the water, so hold on!"
Marius had set the raft up like a life boat. He and Enjolras would need to pull the ropes at the right time to lower it into the water. They then would climb down the side of the boat. Marius waited until everyone had grabbed the edge of their container before nodding to Enjolras, and they both started to pull the ropes gently. They watched as the raft disappeared, then Gavroche's head, then Azelma's head, then Eponine, who looked extremely worried.
It dawned on Enjolras: She can't swim. As soon as they heard Gavroche yell "We're down!", Enjolras ran over to the side to make sure they were all okay. Eponine was smiling, which Enjolras found as a relief. He quickly climbed over the side of the boat, sliding down the rope that Marius had thought to position earlier. He reached the raft before Marius, so he chose the half-barrel next to Eponine's.
"For her benefit," he thought to himself. Marius soon joined him in the boat, standing in the last empty half-barrel and picking up and oar.
"Ready?"
"Ready." Both Marius and Enjolras started to row. Enjolras glanced back and saw Gavroche looking back at his dogs longingly. He rolled his eyes and turned back forward. He then heard a whistle and two splashes. Enjolras didn't even need to look back to know what happened.
"Gavroche..." he moaned.
"COME ON BOYS! SWIM! COME HERE! YOU CAN DO IT! FASTER! DOGGY-PADDLE!" Gavroche was creating quite a din, calling after his dogs who he had coaxed to try to swim to the island. Enjolras turned to look at everyone. Azelma was giggling herself silly, watching the dogs try to swim. Marius was looking at the dogs as well, a confused look on his face. Eponine looked plain worried.
"Oh, Marius, please, stop the raft! They're drown!" cried Eponine. "There has been too much drowning these past few days, spare these animals!" Enjolras couldn't argue with the 'too much drowning' part of it. Marius looked at him and he stopped rowing, giving a little nod of his head. Eponine looked grateful. The two dogs clambered onto the raft, sharing compartments with Azelma and Gavroche.
"Yuck, they're wet!" complained Gavroche.
"They're your dogs. Deal with it." retorted Enjolras with a little smirk, commencing his rowing. Fifteen minutes later, they were pulling onto the beach of the mystery island. The dogs bounded onto shore as soon as they could stand in the water. Gavroche had followed them, getting his pants wet from the knees down. Enjolras and Marius continued to row until the raft wouldn't move anymore. There was still about a foot of water, which neither Eponine nor Azelma looked quite happy about having to walk through.
"Here, I'll carry you!" said Marius to Eponine, jumping off of the raft and offering Eponine his arms. She gladly consented to climb into them and Marius started the 30-foot walk to the pure shore. Enjolras was left with Azelma, who immediately took to studying her feet intently. Enjolras stepped off the raft, not exactly sure what to do.
"Mademoiselle?" he said, gesturing to her. "I can carry you, unless you'd like to walk..."
He could tell she wasn't thrilled by either option. But the way she looked at the water like it was going to swallow her...
"Come, miss." Enjolras said, moving to pick her up. She turned bright red and whimpered as soon as he picked her up.
"Are you alright?" he asked her. She nodded, looking at the water near Enjolras's feet fearfully.
"Don't worry, I won't drop you. I promise." She had put her arms around his neck tightly in an effort to hold on to something, and he could have sworn he'd felt her relax a little. He couldn't help but smile slightly. He waded through water to the shore, and set her down gently, much to Azelma's relief. She clung to him for a moment after he'd set her down, regaining her balance. He could have sworn she was trembling. He gave her hand a little reassuring pat, then she walked off. Marius had been talking with Eponine for a few minutes.
"Marius. Come. We must get those supplies to shore before they float away." said Enjolras, wading back into the water. Marius followed. The two men returned to shore an a few minutes. Gavroche was running about with his dogs, clearly enjoying being in a wide open area.
"We must set up camp for the night," murmured Enjolras, who had taken a moment to sit down. Those supplies were not light.
Eponine spoke up. "Monsieur Enjolras, you should rest first. 'Zelma and me can set up camp! It's one of those things you learn to survive on the street." Enjolras usually would insist on doing the job himself, but he was just so tired from the day and not enough sleep. He nodded in consent, watching Eponine and Azelma walk over to the supplies before grabbing two pieces of wood and rubbing them together fiercely. Marius watched him.
"What ARE you doing?"
"Making fire, genius." Enjolras was tired and irritable. "If you want to help, you can find me some more wood. Otherwise, take a nap." Marius stood up, emotionless, and walked over to some nearby trees. Enjolras immediately felt guilty about snapping at Marius, but he was too tired to care. He kept rubbing and rubbing, and succeed in getting small sparks every once in a while.
Marius came back to Enjolras sitting dejectedly on the sand, rubbing his two sticks. Marius dropped his pile of firewood in front of him. Enjolras looked first at the pile, then at Marius, but he has already turned and walked over to try to help Eponine and Azelma.
"Merci!" he called after Marius, but he wasn't sure if Marius heard or not. He made no sign. Enjolras sighed, and threw his two sticks frustatedly into the pile Marius had brought. He closed his eyes and heard a crackling sound. He started to smell smoke.
"I did it! Fire!"